THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR CICADA. 95 
43. The seventeen- year Cicada. 
Cicada septendecira luinu. 
Order Hemiptera ; Family Cicadarle. 
Stinging the terminal twigs of the oak and other forest trees and of various fruit 
trees, the seventeen-year locust, which deposits its long slender eggs in a hrokeu line 
along the twig. 
Without attempting to recapitulate the history of this famous insect, 
we would only say that the eggs are deposited from the end of May 
through June (Fig. 36, d, e) in pairs in the terminal twigs of the oak, etc. 
The larva3 (Fig. 36,/) hatch out in about six weeks after they are depos- 
ited, and drop to the ground, in which they live, sucking the roots of 
trees, etc., for nearly seventeen years, the pupa state (Fig. 36, a, b) last- 
ing but a few days. 
The following remarks on the habits of this insect are taken from our 
Third Report on the Injurious Insects of Massachusetts: 
As regards the kinds of trees stung by the Cicada, I may quote from a communication 
from William Kite, in the American Naturalist, vol. ii, p. 442, as confirming and add- 
ing somewhat to Dr. Harris's statements: " Seeing in the July number of the Naturalist 
a request for twigs of oak which had been stung by the so-called seventeen-year 
locust, I take the liberty of sending you twigs from eleven different varieties of trees 
in which the females have deposited their eggs. I do this to show that the insect 
seems indifferent to the kind of wood made use of as a depository for her eggs. These 
were gathered July 1, in about an hour's time, on the south hills of the ' Great Chester 
Valley,' Chester County, Pa. No doubt the number of trees and bushes might be 
much increased. The female, in depositing her eggs, seems to prefer well-matured 
wood, rejecting the growing branch of this year, and using the last year's wood and 
frequently that of the year before, as some of the twigs inclosed will show. An or- 
chard which I visited was so badly ' stung' that the apple trees will be seriously in- 
jured and the peach trees will hardly survive their treatment. Instinct did not seem 
to cantiou the animal against using improper depositories, as I found many cherry 
trees had been used by them, thegnm exuding from the wounds, in that case sealing 
the eggs in beyond escape. 
"The males have begun to die, and are found in numbers under the trees; the 
females are yet busy with their peculiar office. The length of wood perforated on 
each branch varied from one to two and a half feet, averaging probably eighteen 
inches ; these seemed to be the work of one insect on each twig, showing a wonderful 
fecundity. 
"The recurrence of three 'locust years' is well remembered in this locality — 1834> 
1851, and 1868. There has been no variation from the usual time, establishing the 
regularity of their periodical appearance." 
A 6 regards the time and mode of hatching, Mr. S. S. Rath von, of Lancaster, Pa., con- 
tributes to the same journal some new and valuable facts, which we quote: " With 
reference to the eggs aud youug of the seventeen-year Cicada, your correspondent from 
Haverford College, Philadelphia, is uot the only one who has failed to produce the 
young by keeping branches containing eggs in their studios. I so failed in 1834 and 
1851, and indeed I have never heard that any oue has succeeded in that way who has 
kept them for any great length of time. In the brood of 1868 the first Cicadas appeared 
here in a body, on the evening of the second day of June. The first pair in coitu I ob- 
served on the 2lst, and the first female depositing on the 26th of the same month. 
The first young were excluded on the 5th of August. All these dates are some ten 
days later than corresponding observations made by myself and others in former years. 
